Oliver Stone has closed a deal to produce and direct an adaptation of Don Winslow's forthcoming novel Savages, which follows young marijuana kingpins who are blackmailed into working for the Baja Cartel after one of their mutual girlfriend is kidnapped.

Stone will collaborate on the script with Winslow, who is currently writing the first draft while Stone puts the finishing touches on Wall Street Money Never Sleeps, due out April 23rd.

Stone is looking to make Savages his next directing vehicle, believing in it enough to put up his own money to acquire the rights.

Here's a more detailed description of the novel Simon & Schuster will publish in July:

In Savages, two pals from Laguna Beach pals share the same girlfriend and a thriving business growing and distributing the best-quality pot on the planet. When they resist being muscled by a Mexican drug cartel , the girl is kidnapped and the ransom is every cent they've made for the last five years. They agree to pay but hatch an alternate plan to get her back, get revenge, and then get lost.

The Laguna Beach setting has gotten some jeering, but Winslow, who lives in Southern California, gives nearly all of his novels a SoCal setting: Dawn Patrol centered on Californian surfers; California Fire and Life obviously; The Death and Life of Bobby Z took pllace in CA; and The Winter of Frankie Machine focused on a surf bum in CA, which had Robert De Niro poised to star in a film version with Martin Scorsese and then Michael Mann directing, before it all fell apart.

Savages sounds like it'll make for a fast paced movie, with some interesting twists and turns. My big concern is casting the threesome. Casting a couple is one thing, and a love triangle is another. But finding three actors who could pull of the chemistry of this mutual three-way romance will be harder than it sounds if it's going to be believable onscreen.

What do you think of the storyline for SAVAGES? What do you think of Oliver Stone directing and co-writing?

Eli Reyes — Editor/Writer. Movie trivia junkie. RIAA-certified Gold record awarded recording artist. Suggested they drop the “The” from “The GeekTyrant” before being told there was no “The” in GeekTyrant to begin with.